Leader of the House Ann Taylor told MPs at Business Questions that Saturday sittings for normal proceedings were "certainly not" being considered.

New Shadow Leader of the House Sir George Young

She was replying to the new Shadow Leader, Sir George Young, who asked her about reports which stated that the move was under consideration due to problems with the government's legislative programme.

She also quashed a suggestion, from Liberal Democrat Paul Tyler, for a Saturday sitting for the ratification of the Ottawa convention on landmines.

This was urgent and should be done before the anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and there was widespread support in the House for it, Mr Tyler said. It was a worthy cause and should be a special case.

Ms Taylor said the government had signed the convention in September and would make time for the ratification as soon as possible, but it was not as simple as a Saturday sitting.

Sir George asked Ms Taylor whether the government had plans for debates on issues including the 50th anniversary of the NHS, the chancellor's Comprehensive Spending Review and a general economic debate, as well as Nato enlargement.

Ms Taylor, who welcomed Sir George to his new position after the Shadow Cabinet reshuffle, replied that an NHS debate had already been suggested and she was sympathetic to the idea. But she could give no guarantees.

There would be a statement in due course on the Spending Review, but it would depend on the timing, she said.

And she had already indicated the government would seek to provide time for a Nato debate, which she hoped would be before the summer recess.

Labour's Chris Mullin asked whether there were plans for an annual debate on the security services.

"I am sympathetic to the idea of debates on the intelligence services. I couldn't guarantee that these would be annual debates but we could have them on a regular basis," said Ms Taylor.